The Roman Catholic Church of England and Wales has until April to
clear its multi-million pound debt with the government over the papal
visit, with officials admitting they are currently unsure how the cost
will be met.
The government covered many of the church's
contributions towards the four-day trip, which took place last month,
and wants the money to be repaid by the end of the financial year.
The
church has raised £6.5m but, as the total costs are £10m, it faces a
£3.5m shortfall.
It is counting on diocesan and individual
contributions, in addition to sales of a papal visit prayer book, to
settle the account.
A parish collection raised just £1.4m while
appeals to the wealthy were more successful, netting around £4m. The
previous papal visit, from John Paul II in 1982, left the church £13m in
debt as it had to foot the bill entirely for the pastoral tour.
A
spokesman for the Church in England and Wales told the Catholic Herald:
"It's up to the papal visit trustees to decide how to deal with any
shortfall that's still there in April – we are just waiting for the
government to pass the bills on once they are all in. As they do not yet
have all the bills it is hard to say what the exact financial costs
will be. Not all the monies from the Magnificat [prayer book] have come
in yet and there are still other sources we are waiting for."
Last
night a Foreign Office spokesman was unable to give the precise amount
owed by the church but said: "We are currently reconciling all the costs
from the visit and will be able to update how much the church owes in
due course."
Earlier this month it emerged that the state bill of
£10m was to be split between different government departments, with
£3.7m coming from environment and energy budgets.
In documents
obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the Treasury said the
total budget for the four-day visit, excluding policing, was £10m.
These
costs were administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which
paid the first £750,000, while the remaining £9.25m was split equally
between the five departments the Treasury considered as having policy
objectives aligned with the government's aims for the visit.
The
departments for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs; Communities and
Local Government; Education and International Development also
contributed.
SIC: TG/UK